Intermittent-alarm clock



April 5, 1927.- W. E. PQRTER INTERMITTENT ALARM CLOCK Filed Dec. 26, 1925 Patented Apr. 5, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILSON E. PORTER, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGIJOR TO THE NEW HAVEN i CLOCK CO., 01: NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION.

INTERMITTENT-ALARM CLOCK.

Application filed December 26, 1925.

Fig. 'l is a view in front elevation of an alarm-clock movement constructed in accordance with my invention, with certain of its parts omitted for the sake of clarity.

Fig. 2 is a detached, perspective view of the gravity, alarm-control member.

My invention relates to alarm clocks of the type known as intermittent alarm clocks, from the fact that the alarm, instead of being continuously sounded, is sounded intermittently, so as to heighten the shocking of the auditory nerves of the bearer, the particular object of my present invention bemg to produce, at a low cost for manufacture, a simple and reliable intermittent alarm clock characterized by such uniformity of manufacture in its intermittent-alarm system that the performance of the clock as a time-piece is precisely the same in an innumerable number of similar clocks, whereas, in intermittent alarm clocks of the prior art, the amount of power demanded of the timetrain for controlling the intermittent alarm system of the clock has varied in each clock beyond the point of precise correction by the clock-maker.

With these ends in View, my invention consists in an intermittent alarm clock hav ing certain details of construction and combinations of parts as will be hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the claim.

In'carrying out my invention, as herein shown, I employ a stop-member actuated by gravity in the performance of its alarm-stop function, such member being in the form of lever 5, hung upon a stud 6 and provided at its inner end with a stop-arm 7, and at its opposite end with a counterweighted arm 8, formed upon its under-edge with a clearance-notch 9, and at its extreme end with a counterweight 10 having a clearance-slot 11 through which one of the pillars 12 of the movement 13 extends.

The timeand alarm-trains of theclock may be of any approved construction.

In the clock chosen for illustration, the alarm-train is furnished with a depending, vibrating stop-arm 1a which I shall hereafter call the hammer-tail, depending from a verge-arbor 15 mounting the verge 16, and the upstanding hammer-arm 17 carrying the hammer 18. The verge 16 co-acts with a crown-wheel 19, driven in the usual man- Serial No. 77,745.

nor by a train of wheels and pinions deriving their power from an Marin-spring 20.

The stop-member 5 aforesaid is continuously oscillated by the co-action of the edge 21 of its weighted arm 8 with the teeth of a ratchet-like alarm-wl1eel 22, continuously driven. by an ordinary time-train actuated by a main-spring 23, by means of the usual intermediate wheels and pinions.

In the normal running of the clock as a time-piece, the said lever will be continuonsly oscillated, being rocked in one direction by the continuously-rotating alarmwheel 22 and rockedin the other direction by the counterweight 10. Now, when the alarm-' train is released in the usual manner of such clocks, the rocking of the lever 5 by the wheel 22 will move its stop-arm 7 out of the path of the hammer-tail 14, thus permitting for a brief period the running of the alarmtrain and the sounding of the alarm. This alarnrsounding period will terminate when the clearance-notch 9 of the said lever 5 permits the counterweighted outer end of the lever 5 to drop upon the base of one of the teeth of the continuously-rotating intermittent alarm wheel 22, thus again bringing the stop-arm 7 into the path of the hammer-tail 14. The alarm-wheel will now immediately begin to raise the said arm 8 and oscillate the lever 5, so as to again disengage the stoparm 7 from the hammertail 14. Then, at the termination of this period of the running of the alarm-train, the lever 5 is again oscillated by gravity, so as to swing its stop-arm 7 into position to prevent the vibration of the hammertail 14.

It will thus be seen that the stopping of the alarm-train is effected by gravity, which becomes a constant factor in my improved clocks, since the counterweighted levers, being all alike, will be identical in balance, whereas, if springs are used to effect the stopping of the alarm-train, as has been the practice in the prior art, the variation in the adjustment of the springs will demand the utilization of more or loss of the power of the time-train to overcome it, since no two assci'nblers can be relied upon to give such a spring the same power in each clock, or, in other words, to bend it so as to apply the same resistance in each clock. Such objection is entirely overcome by my improvemeat, since it is an easy matter to make the counterweighted levers, provided for by my improvement, exact duplicates of each other and permit them to freely rock upon their pivots.

I claim:

In an intermittent alarm clock, the combination with the front and rear movementplates thereof, 01": a time-train installed in the said plates and having a continuouslyrotated intermittent alarm-wheel located between the said plates an alarm-train also installed in the said plates and having a vibrating stop-member, and a horizontallyarranged oscillating intermittent alarm-lever located between the said plates, pivoted netween its ends, and formed on one side of its pivot with a stop-arm eo-acting with the vibrating stop-member ot' the alarm-train and provided on the other side of its pivot and in its lower edge with a clearance-notch eo-acting' with the teeth of the said intermittent alarm-wheel and also provided with a counterweight having a clearanee-opening through which one of the pillars of the movement passes.

In testinion} whereof, I have signed this specification.

VILSON E. PORTER. 

